Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

BJ Wilson, Procol Harum's great
percussionist

Signed memorabilia offered for
auction on eBay • late October 2014

On 20 November a member of the BtP
team, at Gary Brooker's invitation, travelled to a location in Southern
England where Procol Harum were preparing for their orchestral
performance at The Dominion Theatre in London on 24 November: the
specific
purpose of this visit was to enable the Commander to sign, and
dedicate, the nine drumheads depicted below – and our picture shows him
diligently fulfilling that promise. The work-in-progress is in fact
balanced on some of the internal struts of his
faux grand. Behind the
photographer guitar, bass, Hammond and drums are fine-tuning the
skeleton of one of Procol's best-loved stage numbers. If you can see
anyone in the reflection, it's probably John Magner, who is scooting
about making sure things work. [Once the indisposition of Geoff
Whitehorn was made public, it was possible to amend the wording of this
article to explain that in fact the Matt, Josh and Geoff D were teaching
Simple Sister to stand-in guitarist
David Colquhoun]. Outside this ombrageous rehearsal space
(which must be a good forty miles from the ocean) a ruined boat, rotting
tractors, and numerous substantial, friendly cats characterise a
somewhat other-worldly scene. The nearest manmade landmark is an
extensive cemetery. These details are probably not sufficient to send
even the most avid Procoholic stalker to the right place ... so Procol
Harum may continue to rehearse in peace, and we're sure they'll surprise
us all on Monday night.

Offered to fans of BJ Wilson,
by eBay auction: signed drum-heads used by BJ in Procol days

Signatures and
dedications yet
to be added,
of course

These used drumheads
(larger pictures below) of BJ Wilson's have long been in the keeping of Gary Brooker: listen to his explanation of
their history: click here.

The large, heavy items GB refers to in
the sound clipwere sold on eBay
starting on 8 October.

We decided to sell the drumheads in a second wave in hopes that people who
didn't fancy bidding for
a big item could still end up with a nice souvenir of the great
percussionist.

All nine items are listed on this page, to make comparison easier. Each has
its own eBay page: you'll see the links.

In conversations between GB and
BtP (28 October 2014) Gary kindly offered to sign and dedicate each
drumhead,
to make them into
wonderful and iconic wall-decorations for fans' music rooms or dwelling spaces.

So the item you win will be authenticated with a legend something like'For Betsy, November 2014: Gary Brooker, pp BJ Wilson'You'll be able to specify the name you want once the sale is complete.

Obviously, this personalised writing can be done only after the
auction, and we may not be able to despatch your trophies for a few days.
They will be worth waiting for.

Proceeds from this sale go equally to 'Beyond the Pale' and to GB's BJ
Wilson Fund